Juxtaposition
by Veterization
Summary: WARNING: Slash! Vague setting! Beyond/L oneshot, imperfect drabble! Beyond accidentally cuts his thumb. L cleans it up for him with unconventional methods.


_WARNING: _Vague setting! Vague time era! Just go with it!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Death Note.

Even though the cut itself was minor, blood coated Beyond's thumb like an overflowing fondue waterfall. Trickling down and leaving a fresh crimson trail, L watched as Beyond frowned and wrapped his fist around his thumb, pressing hard so even more of the bodily fluid oozed out of the stretched scratch and dribbled down his palm. Down past his knuckles and to his wrist, L watched in distaste. He knew perfectly well that blood left stains on flesh.

"Stop it, B." He ordered, slouching one languid step forward. He stared intently at B's bleeding thumb and then at the blood still flowing like lava down a volcano.

"I don't want it to get infected."

L tilted his head, his eyelids drooping half-mast as he sighed with fatigue. Under the dim florescent bulb Beyond's blood appeared more blue than scarlet and for a second the darkness of the room contrasted with the fluid on B's skin, making it seem as though he had blueberry jelly creeping from his cut.

And through the haze and fog of the dark clouding the two men's senses, the metallic stench of blood wafted through the room like the devil's cologne making its debut. Neither of them wrinkled up their noses at the odor, even though both L and B found it wasn't aggrandizing the state of the room in the slightest.

But L noticed that B's eyes were watching his own hurt and his own gash, almost like a hungry lion spying a bleeding gazelle in between stalks of grass. And consumed by the younger man's masochism, L found that he couldn't look away.

Cool hands gripped at Beyond's wrist, the lighting creating the illusion of a skeleton's hands clutching at his palm, but only to reveal a second later that they were L's human ones, his pale and porcelain-like face mere inches from B's in propinquity. But L exhibited a surprising amount of equanimity, despite his loathing of all human contact, and it was then that Beyond noticed that L wasn't staring into his eyes.

Dark orbs were focused, concentrated at one hundred miles per hour, on the injury still plaguing the smoothness of B's hand. And as the detective cocked his head to the left and without further ado pulled Beyond's finger to his lips, L wrapped his tongue protectively around the bleeding cut on his fingertip.

Beyond smothered his shock in the eclipse of the shadows, tilting his head out of the light and letting his hand go limp. He watched in fascination as L, as though this was a normality for him, slowly and thoroughly lapped up the blood covering B's hand, going down to lick up the trail of blood that had sashayed down to his bony wrist with a petite yet talented tongue.

And just when Beyond's thumb seemed clean of all things red and the room once again was plunged in nothing but shades of blue and lingering shadows, L's forehead suffered from a faint wrinkle of dissatisfaction. One of the hands that was gripping onto B's wrist ghosted upward and gave a gentle squeeze to Beyond's thumb. And when a small drop of blood squirted out in defeat, L's bottom lip latched back onto the younger man's thumb, his mouth practically hermetic around B's fingertip. His teeth gave a small bite to his flesh, squeezing out the last remaining bits of blood and licking it up with his tongue.

One more suck, one more lick, and one last nip before L drew away, satisfied and admiring his work with a small, almost unnoticeable smile. And even though B was averse to question his idol's first-aid methods, he doubted that the procedure he had just been subjected to was all-together approved and was almost entirely under the impression that it had been capriciously fabricated by the detective.

He shivered slightly, drawing his thumb back and examining it. It was almost too chimerical to even be real, not that B was bemoaning, but for someone who watched L as precisely as he did and believed to know his actions so well they were no longer unpredictable, something unexpected like this would always bring a blush of shame into B's cheeks. He slid a saliva-coated thumb back into his pockets and let his eyes flicker up to meet with L's dull ones.

And in a frisson, all inhibitions lost and replaced with hope and downright foolishness, L's ineffable expression brimming with unbridled potential, B's bold feet took a shuffle in the older man's direction so he stood right in the spotlight of a sapphire wash, illuminating him in cerulean.

"You do that with all of your successors?"

Through the shade, L's worn and exhaust-tainted eyes met B's and his lips tugged upward slightly, "No. But my other successors aren't exactly so tactless as to get hurt and bleed quite so much as you do. One could almost call you a masochist."

Beyond shrugged with his lips and smiled, "I guess that's a trait I picked up from you." he breathed through the air, all unspoken implications wafting by L. B drew his hand out of his pocket, still glazed with a layer of L's saliva from his previous ministrations, and covered it with his own mouth, licking away any remaining blood and reveling in picking up the sweet, lingering taste of sugar from L's lips.

The svelte detective stepped out of the light and with one last glance at B's well-nursed laceration, smirked.

"It's interesting," he mumbled, "how little you have to try to compare yourself to me."

B said nothing.

Instead, he closed his eyes, pressed his tongue against the cusp of his finger, and tasted the last loitering remainder of L's lips, sweet and sugared, off of his skin.

_AN_: Before I get a million question marks lighting up in anyone's eyes, I_ know_ this is very ambiguous about where they are and when as well. Honestly? I didn't even want to specify. I think a little mystery goes well with this pairing. And there's also not a lot of time in between young!B at Wammys and insane!B afterward, so by not saying when this is taking place, I eliminated the irksome task of deciding how old and how insane B was!

So this pairing has sort of become my new obsession. I don't get why I wasn't writing all of this a long time ago. It's absolutely brilliant.

I know it's short. I was just bored and really wanted to write this. Blood, B, and L. Who could resist? :D

Dedicated to Shannon for being such an awesome Beyond Birthday in our current soap opera 8D You're the one who made me love this crazy kid…


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